LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Azusa Pacific sent four runners to the Occidental Invite on Saturday, with two Cougars running in the women's 800 and two running in the men's 800. On the women's side, Mikayla Akers and Briseida Garcia Meza turned in impressive performances that had Nationals implications.

Both Akers and Garcia Meza set new lifetime best times on Saturday, as Akers posted a time of 2:09.83, and Garcia Meza crossed the line at 2:10.19. Not only did the two set personal records, but their times landed them on provisional qualifying list at No. 18 (Akers) and No. 24 (Garcia Meza). 

"Mikayla closed the race out very well," said distance coach Sean Smith, "She moved up from 4th to 2nd and closed in on the winner. Bri did most of her work through 550m, as the leader took off significantly faster than the field. Both of them had great runs today and set themselves up to represent on the national stage in a few weeks."

In the men's 800, Ben Sumner, who is No. 20 on the qualifying list in the event for his time of 1:49.87 that he ran at the Bryan Clay Invitational a few weeks ago, ran a time of 1:51.01 on Saturday. Adam Alnazer also ran for the Cougars in the event, and he crossed the line at 1:53.74, which was less than half of a second off of his lifetime best time of 1:53.46.